The Bears will be the No. 4 seed in the Missouri Valley Conference and open Arch Madness play against Bradley on Friday at 2:35 p.m. at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

The Bears' loss Saturday paired with a win by Southern Illinois and losses by Northern Iowa and Bradley places MSU in a two-way tie with the Salukis.

MSU and SIU split their regular season series but the Salukis hold a wide enough gap in the NET rankings to win the tiebreaker over the Bears. Since MSU lost and SIU won on Saturday, there should be no way MSU jumps SIU in the NET.

Missouri State swept the season series against Bradley.

The Bears came back to beat the Braves 69-64 in Peoria on Jan. 12. Keandre Cook scored a pair of late buckets to help the Bears overcome a 14-point second-half deficit.

When the two played again, but at JQH Arena, the Bears' defense held the Braves to just 37 points in a 55-37 beatdown.

Loyola, Indiana State and Valparaiso are also on Missouri State's side of the bracket.

The Bears only lost one game against its side of the bracket during the regular season — an 82-66 loss to Valparaiso on Jan. 5.

Here is how Saturday afternoon's game went down:

Second-chance points put Bulldogs up early

Drake found success early on the offensive boards while pulling away to an early 17-10 lead over MSU with 10:43 left in the opening half.

Six of the Bulldogs' first 12 came on second-chance scores as MSU decided to go with Darian Scott down low early in place of Tulio Da Silva. The Bears also took quick shots early in the shot clock to allow Drake to go up by seven.

Drake star Nick McGlynn knocked down a 3-pointer with 12:02 left in the half for his points of the afternoon. Twelve of the team's first 21 points came inside the paint.

Keandre Cook ended the Drake run with a wide-open 3-pointer from the corner and a Jarred Dixon fastbreak layup two possessions later.

The Bulldogs hit four straight shots heading into the 7:46 timeout. They were shooting 50 percent at the time and held a 23-15 lead.

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Jarred Dixon drives to the net during the Missouri State game against Drake at JQH Arena on Saturday, Mar. 2, 2019.(Photo: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)

Bears catch fire from deep for lead after one

Drake got up by as many as 11 with 7:25 remaining in the first half, but the Bears kept responding.

Missouri State caught fire from deep as it was able to hit four shots from 3-point range to end the first half.

Dixon knocked down the first two for the Bears — including an open one from the corner and one immediately in response to a Drake free throw. On the following possession, Da Silva slammed in his first dunk of the afternoon.

With the Bears trailing by seven with 2:59 remaining in the half, the Bears finished on an 8-0 run before the break.

Josh Webster lobbed up a pass to Da Silva for an alley-oop. It was followed by a Jared Ridder in-rhythm 3-pointer to bring the Bears within one point.

With just over a minute remaining in the half, Webster hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put the Bears up 34-33, and that's where it would stay until the break.

Dixon led the Bears with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting. MSU hit six 3-pointers in the half.

Drake ended the half shooting 45 percent. McGlynn and D.J. Wilkins each led with seven points.

Bears cold to start second half

Cook knocked down a deep jumper coming out of the break but the Bears didn't score a lot early in the second half.

Drake went on an 8-0 run — featuring six points from McGlynn — for the Bulldogs to go up five. Dixon knocked down a jumper to stop the run.

Tremell Murphy got an inside jumper to go before Noah Thomas knocked down a free throw. Cook brought MSU within four at 44-40 with 13:51 remaining in the game.

Dana Ford given technical, Bulldogs go up six

Missouri State continued to struggle to score in the second half.

Following Cook's free throws, a Ryan Kreklow 3-pointer was all the Bears scored for the next two minutes.

Drake took advantage of a pair of technical free throws after Cook was called for a close blocking foul with 10:17 to go. Bears head coach Dana Ford was called for a technical after reacting to the call. The shots put Drake up six.

Back-and-forth action has game close late

Both teams went back-and-forth as the score was close late in the game.

McGlynn continued to dominate the Bears from inside the paint. His ability to stretch the floor made it difficult for the Bears to guard him.

Da Silva knocked down a pair of free throws, which was followed by a Webster free throw to bring the game within six.

Drake catches fire late to win a share of the MVC

The hot-shooting Bulldogs pulled away late while hitting shots from deep to win at least a share of the Missouri Valley Conference.

Missouri State was cold as it went 3-for-17 in the last 10 minutes of the game.

Garrett Sturtz got a jumper to go inside the paint. It was followed by a Brady Ellingson 3-pointer and a Tremell McMurphy triple on following possessions to put the Bulldogs up 68-54 with 2:32 to go.

Drake hit its free throws late while the Bears continued to add to their total as the Bulldogs held on for an MVC title.

Postgame

Notes

Missouri State brought in a season-high 7,894 fans to JQH Arena. That's the most fans at an MSU basketball game since Jan. 21, 2015, when the Bears played Wichita State.

Stats

Missouri State

Josh Webster: 38min, 7pts, 2-9FG, 1-3(3pt), 2-4FT, 4reb, 8ast

Keandre Cook: 37min, 10pts, 3-11FG, 1-4(3pt), 5reb

Jarred Dixon: 36min, 18pts, 6-17FG, 3-7(3pt), 5reb

Ryan Kreklow: 31min, 6pts, 2-6FG, 1-3(3pt)

Tulio Da Silva: 32min, 17pts, 7-19FG, 1-3(3pt)

Ross Owens: 1min

Kabir Mohammed, 3min, 1reb

Darian Scott: 8min, 1pt

Jared Ridder: 14min, 3pts, 1-3(3pt)

Drake notables

Nick McGlynn: 22pts, 8-13FG, 13reb

Team comparisons

FG: MSU 21-65, DU 24-50

3pt FG: MSU 8-23, DU 5-9

FTs: MSU 12-18, DU 20-24

TOs: MSU 4, DU 11

Reb: MSU 33, DU 41

Quotes

"If we won the game, we might not have been as motivated going into next week, maybe. I guess you can just look at the positive in that. Teams that win the regular season don't always win the conference tournament. Just learn from our mistakes and try to win six games next week." — Jarred Dixon on lessons from the loss

"We'll take what happened and reflect on it. It's a new season right now. We have a tournament to look forward to." — Ryan Kreklow on moving on to the MVC Tournament

"I really appreciate the fans that stuck with us through the tough times. Springfield's a great place. Coach Ford is going to build some championships. I was glad it was us three to help start that rebuilding process and hopefully get a championship." — Dixon on his career at JQH Arena

"The culture is established. It started with us three with him coming in as a new coach. As seniors, we helped build that culture for future teams. A lot of success is coming. We can still win in St. Louis. I believe it, the guys next to me believe it. I think it's not over yet." — Dixon on the building of the culture

"We're still competing for a championship next week. After we win that, then we compete for another championship. You're always competing for a championship and you just gotta stay locked in and stay hungry." — Josh Webster on competing for championships

"It doesn't matter. If we want to win it, we could play anybody. We could play Drake again. We can play anybody again, and I'm looking forward to it." — Dixon on who he wants to play in St. Louis

"I'm disappointed I couldn't do a better job at getting those seniors a conference championship when they were knocking on the door with four games left and three at home." — Ford on the loss

"They've been awesome. I don't really know how to say it. Dixon and Kreklow have been great, Web has been great. They've just been great. Yup, they've been great." — A sad Ford said about his seniors

"I owe a big thanks to the crowd and a huge thanks to the community. This is a championship-level place and the crowd is a part of that. They were great today and I owe them a huge thank you, though it wasn't positive today. It will be more than this." — Ford on the crowd